Lesson on Isaiah 1:7-9

In the last lesson, we examined the total affliction of Judah. In this lesson, we will discuss some of the results of their sin. We will see how God deals with His people in justice and mercy.

Isaiah 1:7-9.(NIV)(NASB)(NKJV)(NCV)

A misconception among some Christians is that God has different sides of His character that almost oppose one another. Depending upon the situation, He acts within a certain side of His character but not the other side. This idea simply isn't true. Certainly, from our viewpoint, we may see a certain trait that seems more evident, but God always acts within the full scope of His character.

Justice and mercy make a particularly hard combination to understand. They seem, at their core, to represent competing values. Justice gives wrongdoers what they deserve; mercy spares lawbreakers from the penalty of their deeds. Yet we find both mercy and justice in this passage.

In verse 7, we read about some of the results of Judah's sin. Foreigners have spoiled their land and burned their cities. The passage doesn't identify sin as the cause of these circumstances. How do we know that they are? The answer appears much earlier, in Deuteronomy 28. This chapter outlines the results of Israel's behavior. If they, as a people, obeyed God, He would physically bless them. If they disobeyed, He would curse them. The blessings include military prowess, international respect, and financial prosperity. In contrast, the curses include disease, drought, mildew, blindness, oppression, war, and destruction.

In light of this passage, we can conclude that the people suffer because of their lifestyle of disobedience to God's laws. We can also confirm this impression by looking at the background of Isaiah's ministry.

King Jotham first rules in the stead of his father when his father develops leprosy. After his father dies, Jotham assumes the full throne and apparently continues his rule in accordance with God's commands. Although the Biblical record says little about him, it does say that Jotham "did what was right in the eyes of the Lord . . ." (2 Kings 15:34).

Jotham's son is another story altogether. King Ahaz follows a pagan Canaanite system of worship. When the nations of Aram and Israel attack Jerusalem (Judah's capital city), he does not seeks the LORD's help. Instead he calls in the king of Assyria, another pagan nation of the time. Then he strips the silver and gold from the temple in order to pay Assyria for its services. Ahaz erects a pagan altar and desecrates other sacred structures in the temple. Eventually, he closes the temple completely (2 Kings 16:1-19; 2 Chronicles 28:24).

Jotham's son Hezekiah returns to the ways of God, but the damage done by Jotham (and many previous generations of kings) seems to have run deep with the people. God, as a LORD of justice, cannot ignore the rampant sin. So we see the effects of sin upon the nation and land of Judah in verses 7-8.

At the same time we see God's justice in action, we see His mercy, as well (v. 9). He spares Judah from total annihilation. Isaiah's allusion to Sodom and Gomorrah references a Biblical event from Abraham's era. Sodom and Gomorrah were two cities whose flagrant sin had caused God to destroy the cities and annihilate all the people within them - well, almost all. A man named Lot, with his family, escapes from the city following God's warning, before fire literally rains down from the skies upon Sodom and Gomorrah. (See Genesis 18-19 for a full narrative of this tragic story.)

The most amazing thing about this story? Lot, throughout his brief appearance in Scripture, does not appear to be a man of upstanding character. Neither his wife nor his daughters seem to be godly women. Yet God, in His mercy, spares Lot from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah - just as He spares some of the people of Judah from the destruction Isaiah describes, and just as He spares us today.

The people of Judah God spares during Isaiah's time are the same people who have rebelled against Him, who have forsaken Him. Even so, God is merciful. He's not sparing those who deserve any mercy from Him. After all, that's what mercy does; it spares the undeserving. Paul wrote, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy" (Titus 3:4-5a).

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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.